How about we all become Buddhists - don't think they ever started any wars ...
I agree with you completely and emphatically especially now that I live and teach in the Bible Belt. I would categorize myself as an agnostic deist in that I think we can't "know," and moreover, we aren't supposed to "know" because if we did, the idea of faith becomes meaningless. By that I mean that if you accept the Bible/Koran/prophets/miracles as "proof" of a higher power, then the fact that you "believe" in that higher power doesn't mean very much. Not to mention the fact that if you think you have an instruction manual for living a good life then your virtue is about the equivalent of an obedient child and not anything so tremendous.
Morals and faith need to come from inside ourselves, how we are because reflection tells us that is the right way and not because whatever religion we espouse says we are right and will go to a reward in the afterlife. Heck, it should be what we do even if there is no afterlife. Heaven is not like the gold star you were given for good behavior when you were in first grade.
Oh, and I have your icon but I also love the one I used here too.
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Date: 2011-09-12 06:57 am (UTC)I agree with you completely and emphatically especially now that I live and teach in the Bible Belt. I would categorize myself as an agnostic deist in that I think we can't "know," and moreover, we aren't supposed to "know" because if we did, the idea of faith becomes meaningless. By that I mean that if you accept the Bible/Koran/prophets/miracles as "proof" of a higher power, then the fact that you "believe" in that higher power doesn't mean very much. Not to mention the fact that if you think you have an instruction manual for living a good life then your virtue is about the equivalent of an obedient child and not anything so tremendous.
Morals and faith need to come from inside ourselves, how we are because reflection tells us that is the right way and not because whatever religion we espouse says we are right and will go to a reward in the afterlife. Heck, it should be what we do even if there is no afterlife. Heaven is not like the gold star you were given for good behavior when you were in first grade.
Oh, and I have your icon but I also love the one I used here too.